In a sign of things to come, perhaps the first in a wave of Democrats across the country to switch to Republican has begun. (OK maybe not the first, but you get the idea).

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine  A Democratic legislator from Aroostook County has announced that he has switched his affiliation to the Republican Party.

Michael Willette of Presque Isle, who was elected to a second term in the Legislature on Nov. 2 as a Democrat, told the Bangor Daily News on Friday that he has labored over his decision to switch since he couldnt convince himself to support a tax reform proposal earlier this year that was supported almost exclusively by Democrats.

He also didnt support other major Democrat-led initiatives: enactment of a 2008 law that allowed same-sex marriage as well as a bill that would have required businesses to offer paid sick time to employees during last years outbreak of the H1N1 flu. Neither measure nor the tax reform package ended up as law.

It seemed like every time something major to the Democratic Party came up I just couldnt vote for it, said Willette during an interview Friday with the Bangor Daily News. They were just bills that, to me, didnt make sense and wouldnt have worked for my district.

Willettes switch brings the Republican majority in the House of Representatives to 78 versus 72 Democrats.

And that’s what our senatorial and congressional members are supposed ot keep in mind when looking at law: Their District.
Whether or not the people who elected them will want to tar and feather them if they vote for something unpopular.
John Hall here in NY learned that the hard way.
He’s gone.
Topo bad JigglyBrand and Schmucker are still reprehensing, er, representing NY.

5
posted on 11/13/2010 7:07:16 AM PST
by Darksheare
(I shook hands with Sheryl Crow and all I got was Typhus and a single sheet of toilet paper.)

This seems to suggest a “replay” of what happened after the 1994 elections — a number of conservative-leaning democrats switch parties.

Nothing particularly wrong with that. Those who are “opportunists” will be seen for that quickly. Those who switch because they really agree with the Republican side more than the ‘rat side will demonstrate such by their future behavior, and should be welcomed.

I agree! BTW, didn't some idiot up in the NY house switched to republican and gave them the majority only to have switched back to the rat hole for a higher position or something like that? I DON'T TRUST ANY RAT that stabs their own party...he is no good!! Throw him back to the rat hole he crawled out of!

I agree. The right thing to do is what Phil Gramm did back in the eighties: resign and then run in the special election for the other party. After all, it’s wrong to take money and time from one party and then serve in the other.

I agree. The right thing to do is what Phil Gramm did back in the eighties: resign and then run in the special election for the other party. After all, it’s wrong to take money and time from one party and then serve in the other.

I agree 100 percent. I was getting ready to post the exact same thing. I pray that FREEPERS are not cheer-leading this monstrosity. It will make the Republican party more moderate than it already is. I thought we were trying to get the RINOs out. You will never convince me that a guy who switches from Democratic to Republican is going to be a conservative Tea Party type. Of course FREEPERS (some) never see the long term. That is why they love that new Illinois Senator and was going for some of these other liberal Republican. It is very strange for a conservative websites to have some many liberal Republican cheerleaders.

‘Once a democrat always a democrat’ is SO not true. I came out of UCBerkeley, very liberal, always voted Democrat. Voted for George Bush when I came out of the fog, because of his integrity. I had looked at Ralph Nader’s website that year (!!) thinking that I had always liked him, and realized that it was a load of hooey and that I didn’t believe any of that at all in any way.

Often a convert will be more convinced of his new stance because he has made the decision clearly, perhaps with gut-wrenching soul-searching. I say we welcome the converts. They know how the other side thinks, and they are ‘liberals mugged.’

Personally, it gives me hope to see this. I think it is a harbinger of things to come.

There was also another Democrat turned Republican, named Ronald Reagan, who was far from being a RINO.

Back then the ideological gulf that he crossed was not near as wide as it is today. A liberal Democrat could be found who still loved America as founded. What Reagan did was see the Democrat future and wanted no part of it. Today if you are a Democrat who still loves America as it was founded you are persona-non-grata in the Democrat party and must leave it to keep your sanity. The reason a person stays a Democrat is that they hate America and want to mutate it into something resembling the former Soviet Union.

Right you are. I would think about half of all Republicans in the South are former Democrats. Ironically, I was not aware that the Tea Party was following the lead of the John Birch Society and demanding loyalty oaths of its followers.

This is a pet peeve of mine. If you get elected as a Democrat, you stay a Democrat. If a Republican, you stay a Republican.

If you want to switch parties, do it before the election cycle— not pull a bait and switch as soon as you’re elected.

This is fraud, pure and simple. Thousands of people gave money to their party to help elect their representative— or, even worse, gave money directly to his campaign. He’s got an obligation to those constituents to fulfill that “contract”.

31
posted on 11/13/2010 7:48:24 AM PST
by Egon
(The difference between Theory and Practice: In Theory, there is no difference.)

Listened to the Maine GOP response to the Gov’s weekly message and the GOPer (a legislator, forgot who) gave all the credit for the historic takeover of the legislative bodies and governorship to..... the GOP establishment. Yes, they got introspective and adjusted their message. Not a mention of Tea Party or the citizens.

If you want to switch parties, do it before the election cycle not pull a bait and switch as soon as youre elected.

Agreed. Phil Gramm did it right:

(from Wikipedia)

Just days after being reelected in 1982, Gramm was thrown off the House Budget Committee for supporting Reagan's tax cuts. In response, Gramm resigned his House seat on January 5, 1983. He then ran as a Republican for his own vacancy in a February 12, 1983 special election, and won. He became the first Republican to represent the district since its creation.

34
posted on 11/13/2010 7:53:53 AM PST
by Dr. Sivana
(There is no salvation in politics)

Not to pile on, but “Ronaldus Magnus” wouldn’t have gotten through under your test, so how does that hekp us? I agree that it is generally problematic to accept party switchers, because such changes are normally nothing but self-serving opportunism, and you get what you pay for.

However, there is an important minority of cases that are the result of serious maturation of thought. They have really become convinced that the perspective of their old party is deeply flawed, and more importantly, they’ve seen those defects first hand, understand them from the inside, so they are totally inoculated against them, and are particularly good at opposing and defeating them. You don’t want to give up some of your best A-Team players if you don’t have to. I say we welcome everybody, but just like church, hold their feet to the fire if their “conversion” later fails to pass the test of genuineness.

At the local level, things aren’t quite so ideologically clear. It’s whether to build a new road here or there, how to save the cost of two maintenance positions, how to get the state to do something that the county needs and has paid for with its taxes. So at the state legislature level it’s not always clearly liberal versus conservative. Even in some states like Wyoming, Democrat doesn’t mean liberal the same way as, say, Pennsylvania.

This is a pet peeve of mine. If you get elected as a Democrat, you stay a Democrat. If a Republican, you stay a Republican. If you want to switch parties, do it before the election cycle not pull a bait and switch as soon as youre elected. This is fraud, pure and simple.

Bait and switch my foot.

The Democrat party and anybody voting for it, serving it and running as it is shredding our Constitution and destroying our country.

Let me see if I understand this. A: He ran and won as a Democrat B: He accepted Democrat money to campaign with C: He switched parties 10 days after the election. D: The Republicans welcomed him with open arms.

That is just one of the many reasons I don't trust the Republican any more than I trust the Democrats. One party with two faces.

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